Funny pâtisseries

By Anne on September 27th, 2011

un paris-brest

Funny pâtisseries

The French love their pâtisseries. They give them funny names sometimes. Here are ten of them.

Le Paris-Brest got its name from the famous bicycle race that runs from Paris to Brest, in Brittany. In the late 19th century, a pastry cook who lived on the road where the race is held wanted to increase his business. He had the idea of creating a donut shaped cake that reminded the bicycle wheel. He filled it with delicious praline-flavored cream and to this day it still sells well in French pâtisseries.

Un parisien is as much a resident of Paris, as it is a lemon flavored sponge cake. It’s flavored with Grand Marnier and topped with an Italian meringue.

Une religieuse – a nun – is a cake made with a big pastry puff filled with cream with another smaller puff on top. I guess that looks like a nun. These religieuses are flavored with either coffee or chocolate. When covered with white icing, they are called “unbonhomme de neige”, snowmen.

Un pet de none – a nun’s fart – is a round little fritter. These used to be called Prostitute’s farts. ?! They are traditionally eaten at Mardi-Gras.

Un chinois - which translates as a Chinese person - is a brioche-like cake with cream inside.

Une pièce montée - mounted piece - is a cone made out of cream puffs piled up one on top of the other, sealed with candy and caramel. These can reach up to a yard high and is the quintessential wedding cake.

Un opéra – an opera – is a three-layered cake made out of biscuit Joconde, coffee and chocolate.

Un éclair – a bolt of lightning – is a creamy frosted cake.It has two main flavors: chocolate and coffee.

Un macaron isn’t a macaroon. It’s a little round almond flavored cake. It’s crunchy on the outside, and very soft on the inside. Its shape is said to resemble the navel of the monks who originally created them. During the French revolution (1789), two nuns who were escaping the horrors of war, made their living with making macarons.